Light Travels Faster Than Sound
by Kagura Hale
Summary: Time holds many mysteries. Hardships, romances, peril, joy, ect... The list goes on. But sometimes it's just nice to enjoy the little things. To admire all that you never have time to. To take the time... to make the time for those you care about. Life is short and you only get one shot at it... so make it a good one.


The clouds were swollen with moisture and it looked as if it could rain at any moment. I don't know why, but I actually found it soothing to watch them pass by. They rolled across the sky and grew darker and darker and out on the horizon I could actually see the rain falling way out in the desert sands. Suna didn't usually get rain—in fact it never got rain—but there were exceptions, rare exceptions, but exceptions nonetheless.

The sky began to look a dark grey and the sun, low as it was hanging for it being dusk, was nowhere to be seen. It was blocked out like it wasn't even there although you could still see the light it gave off through the mass of clouds.

This was the first rain Suna had gotten in the last two years but it was a welcome reprieve to the scorching hot days that everyone usually lived through. I liked it simply because I had only ever seen rain twice before and one of those times wasn't even here in Suna.

Thunder began to sound as the swollen clouds began to roll overhead and get closer to Suna. And far off in the distance I could see the sparks of lightning as they flashed for brief seconds and lit everything up. Light travels faster than sound; that was what I was taught, so that was why you didn't hear the thundering crash of the lightning right when it hit the Earth.

"What are you doing out here Angel?" a familiar voice said from behind me. I turned around to see the face of the one person I cared for most…

"**I'm just sitting out here and waiting for the rain to fall. It's been so long since I've seen it." **I said **"Have you ever seen rain, Gaara?"**

Gaara then moved closer to me and sat by my side as he too watched the black clouds get closer. "Yeah, a few times," He said. "In places like Konohagakure it rains a lot, especially in spring."

"**I wish it did here too." **I said as I began drifting away into my own mind. No more words were passed, there was nothing to say, but I felt Gaara pull me into his lap as he wrapped his arms protectively around my waist and set his head on my shoulder. I smiled almost subconsciously at him as I felt the first drops of rain hit the bare parts of my body.

It wasn't long before it began pouring and Gaara and I got soaked, but we didn't move. We just stayed in the rain and enjoyed the feeling together. It was dark now, and the only light were the few street lights in Suna and the brief flashes of lightning that lit up the sky. But other than that, the couple was left in darkness, however a comfortable darkness.

The rain fell from the sky endlessly it seemed and I often wondered how so much water could get in the sky in the first place, carried by mere clouds. It was odd to me but I just told myself that nature worked in mysterious ways. There were also no stars to be seen that night. They were covered by the clouds and blocked from view. A shame, I thought, staring at the night sky was something that I enjoyed about as much as Gaara. It was like… like an escape from reality, a way to lose yourself in the endless black and blue of the sky. It was like a fantasy sitting on your doorstep and all you could door was look through the peephole to see who it was because the door was jammed and you couldn't open it.

It was like skimming realities.

"How long has it been?" Gaara asked me after an hour had passed. I snapped back into reality and gave him a questioning 'hm?' not understanding his question. "How long have we been together? I've lost count of the days."

I gave it some short thought before replying **"Three years?" **I said more to myself then to him. **"Yeah… three years."**

"Long time." And I nodded.

"**Yeah, but it's been the best three years of my life."** I said as I turned my head to kiss his cheek.

"Mine too, Angel." Gaara said as he gave a faint smile. "I wouldn't trade that time for anything."

I looked back out to the endless desert sands and the spots where lightning was striking. There would be a lot of lightning glass out there after tonight. Perhaps I could go collect some and build something out of it all. I voiced the thought to Gaara and he said it was a good idea, and also that he'd go with me. I chuckled inwardly at him; he was so protective over me. Though I guess I could sympathize why, he had never really liked anyone before; no one had ever liked him. That guy Naruto had been the first to start the process in changing Gaara's heart and I had been the first to reaching his heart's depths, depths that went deeper than I could have imagined. He held a lot of hurt and pain and his emotions had been locked away for good reason. I was the only one that he let his guard down around. All his emotions came out when he was around me and I loved how close we had gotten.

Before we started dating I couldn't say something like that. Gaara was probably hardened to me the most when I knew him then. His guard had always been up and he always looked at me suspiciously like I was planning on hurting him. I think it was a relief for him that one night—three years back—when I had told him I liked him and then kissed him for the first time.

That was when everything started.

Our relationship

Though not every day was peaches and sunshine. There were those moments when Gaara got angry, for numerous reasons, and I was the one who had to calm him down. Or there were times when he locked all his feelings back up and wouldn't tell me what was bothering him. But there were more good days than bad and we both worked through each others' issues over time.

Temari had often told me that she was a little disappointed that Gaara never confided in her but she would always smile afterward and say that she was glad he at least had someone who he would confide in. And Kankuro would just say things like how he was just glad that I had "tamed the beast" so to speak. Meaning that Gaara wasn't exactly as aggressive as he had been a long time ago, I only laughed when he said that.

I hadn't tamed Gaara at all, Shukaku was still there and the desire to kill people still came at times, Gaara just found a reason to live other than killing people. He had Shukaku a bit more under control and I'm sure that that cocky bastard didn't like me for that.

I had only seen Shukaku once before but it was terrible and almost abnormal. I had been really scared that day; I had thought that Shukaku was going to kill me… and the village that we were at.

Thank god for small miracles though. I owed Naruto a big debt that day, for saving my life.

I turned around in Gaara's arms so that I was now straddling him and I kissed him passionately. He looked surprised but didn't stop me from doing it. But when I pulled away he chuckled at me. "Where'd that come from?"

I smiled at him, he really only saw that smile though when some lightning flashed and lit up my features. **"You're just so important to me Gaara and we've been through so much."** I said. **"And all those times when I thought I lost you to Shukaku… I'm just glad you're still here."**

He then pulled me into a kiss this time, our lips locking together and our jaws moving in synch with each others'. "I'm not going anywhere any time soon." He said between the kisses.


End file.
